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Yahoo!NEW YORK – A spontaneous celebration erupted in the U.N. General Assembly after representatives of 192 member states unanimously ratified the Comprehensive Arms Ban Treaty. The treaty outlaws possession, production and trade of military equipment ranging from small arms to nuclear warheads.
The U.S.’s stockpile of W.M.D.s, which includes arms like the one above, will soon be a relic of the past.
“This is watershed moment in the security of people and the security of the planet itself,” said U.S. President Barack Obama. “With weapons off the table, we can finally focus on the world’s real threats: global poverty, pollution, and climate change.”
The Comprehensive Arms Ban Treaty is an initiative of the U.N.’s new Global Security Protocol, which identifies environmental sustainability as its prime directive.
“We cannot have any kind of security unless our planet remains livable,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “The tens of trillions of dollars freed by disarmament makes it easier to focus on the big-picture issues.”
The weapons ban includes extensive subsidiies for the retooling of arms manufacturers. Hours after the agreement was reached, German weapons giant Heckler & Koch announced its first contract to take advantage of the incentive packages by refitting its P11 assault pistol factory to produce an improved “life straw,” an individual water filtration system that greatly reduces waterborne disease. The company’s plan will use former weapons brokers to deliver the straws, and they will train former child soldiers to handle the labor-intensive task of local distribution.
Impetus for the C.A.B.T. developed after the 1998 European Union Code of Conduct, which prohibits selling weapons to countries that may use them for external aggression or internal oppression, went largely unheeded. In one contravention of the code, Europe did not cease trade with the United States and Britain despite their unprovoked invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In Britain, massive public protests, including a sit-in that blocked exit from the British Parliament for two weeks, convinced the government to reverse course and uphold the E.U. Code of Conduct, as well as to support passage of the C.A.B.T.
One of the primary focuses of the C.A.B.T. is small arms, which kill one person every minute, 75 percent of them women and children. A survey conducted last May showed fewer than one-tenth of one percent in favor of continuing these deaths. In addition to mandating the immediate cessation of production, the C.A.B.T. includes a buyback program to repossess most of the 640 million small arms already in circulation, and melt them down in small mobile smelters which will recycle the steel into agricultural tools and equipment to be distributed locally.
As for the 20,350 nuclear warheads known to exist, they will be destroyed using monitoring procedures developed under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The last country to sign off on the new plan was North Korea, who agreed to dismantle their last warhead simultaneously with that of the U.S. The disarmament will take place in a ceremony organized and televised by members of the now defunct Olympic Games Committee. The Olympic Games were canceled in December after most member nations realized that contests to see who could do useless things in the name of archaic national boundaries are not helping anyone.
Ailing leader Kim Jong Il made a rare appearance to comment. “Finally, we have rid ourselves of the Olympics. Our best athletes will do useful and strenuous things. And we are very pleased to no longer need bombs to protect ourselves from Americans with more bombs. We can now focus on avoiding the collapse of our planet’s ecosystem, and on other pursuits the Great Leader would have applauded. The people of North Korea will enjoy this challenging, bright future immensely.”
And there will be nothing but ponies and rainbows.
Comment on November 12, 2008 06:34 pm